Smartphone market records negative growth in 2018
29 January, 2019
China’s smartphone shipments fell 14% year-on-year to 396 million units in 2018, the second consecutive year that the market has experienced negative growth, its overall size returning to its pre-2014 level, Yicai.com reported citing data released by Canalys.
The volatility of the market has also led to a significant shift in overall competition, as the pattern of oligopoly has been fixed. The data shows that the overall market share of the top five mobile phone manufacturers has increased significantly from 73% in 2017 to 88% in 2018.
Huawei and Vivo, which rank first and third in terms of shipments still saw moderate growth of 15% and 9% from a year earlier. OPPO maintained second place, but the gap between Vivo has been narrowed to less than two million in 2018 from 10 million phones in 2017.
Fourth-ranked Xiaomi’s growth got stuck in the third and fourth quarter, which resulted in a decline of 6% in its annual shipments.
Apple’s shipments in China have fallen for the third consecutive year, falling by more than 13%. Its market share in China remains at 9%, ranking fifth.
Other than the growing Chinese phone makers, the reduction in shipments of next-generation iPhones is due to the substantial increase in selling prices.
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